1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to rehabilitation aids, and more particularly, to a Force feedback type compliant orthotic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Patients with stroke, brain injury, or any other neurological injury usually need to undergo rehabilitation for a long period of time in order to restore the functions of their muscles and joints and preclude ensuing muscular dystrophy and joint degeneration.
To free patients from dependence on a third party in receiving rehabilitation, conventional rehabilitation aids are developed and commercially available. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,211,042 discloses a magnetorheological damper and a friction brake for use in rehabilitation or for functioning as a prosthetic joint. However, U.S. Pat. No. 8,211,042 lacks any driving source and thus gives limited benefits to a user. Moreover, US2008/0071386 discloses an electromyographic signal sensor for use in making judgment and thus serving as a driving device for generating a driving force, but it has a drawback, that is, the magnitude of the driving force must be controlled by mathematical computation performed with a virtual spring constant and a virtual damping coefficient, thereby not only causing signal transmission delay, but also compromising precision in signal processing due to external interference.